Increasingly over time, products are introduced to make one's life easier and one type of product like this is an automatic garage door opener. Before the introduction of the automatic garage door opener, homeowners and the like had to manually open and close the garage door. This was a very labor intensive task since the garage door is of a significant weight that prevented many people from even performing the task as well as being a time intensive task since it required an operator of the vehicle to first pull the vehicle closer to the door then disembark from the vehicle to open the door manually and then subsequently return to the vehicle to drive into the garage before then disembarking the vehicle for a second time to close the door and enter the house, etc. The introduction of the automatic garage door opener system that could be operated within the confines of the vehicle eliminated all of the hassles associated with manual operation of the garage door.
A garage door opener system typically includes a mechanical drive system that is disposed within the interior of the garage and is coupled directly to the garage door such that actuation of the mechanical drive system causes a controlled opening and closing of the garage door. The garage door opener system includes a remote control or transponder that is programmed to work with the mechanical drive system to permit operation of the mechanical drive system from a remote location, such as an interior of the vehicle. The mechanical drive system thus includes a control unit or CPU that communicates with the remote control to permit the controlled opening and closing of the garage door. The remote control is fairly small in size and therefore, can be clipped to a vehicle's visor or carried in a purse or stored in a glove box or even placed on a key chain. In addition, most garage door opener systems also have control pads that act like the remote control but are permanently installed at a specified location to permit operation of the garage door at this location by manipulation of the control pad. For example, the key pad can be in the form of a control unit that is installed as a wall console or it can be an outdoor key pad that is located near the garage door. These types of control units permit the operator to open and close the garage door at the specified, strategic locations such as near an entry way between the living quarters of the house and the garage.
Once the garage door is shut, the mechanical drive system keeps the garage door locked. Garage door opener systems are safer, more affordable and provide more security than ever before. The obvious security that it provides is that it keeps intruders out of one of the largest openings or entry points into your home (your garage). Yet for all the security features built into modern day garage door opener systems, they still have a compromising security flaw, namely the garage door will remain open if left open. This may happen under a number of different circumstances. One being that the homeowner may be in a hurry and could overlook closing the garage door after the homeowner leaves the property. Another circumstance is that the batteries in the remote control can be weak or dead (hence not functioning properly) and the homeowner might drive away thinking that the garage door opener system has been activated to close the garage door, while in reality, it has not been and the garage door remains open.
Thus, there is a need for an additional safety feature that can be implemented in new or existing garage door opener systems and is constructed to overcome the above noted deficiencies associated with a garage door being accidentally left open.